Osborne/Deripaska row: ROTHSCHILD LETTER TO TUESDAY'S TIMES

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Sir, Since your paper - along with your sister publication The Sunday Times - has made much out of what may or may not have happened at a private gathering of my friends this summer in Corfu, I thought I should make the following observations. I am surprised that you focus on the fact that one of my guests, Peter Mandelson, is a friend of another, Oleg Deripaska. Not once in the acres of coverage did you mention that George Osborne, who also accepted my hospitality, found the opportunity of meeting with Mr Deripaska so good that he invited the Conservatives' fundraiser Andrew Feldman, who was staying nearby, to accompany him on to Mr Deripaska's boat to solicit a donation. Since Mr Deripaska is not a British citizen, it was suggested by Mr Feldman, in a subsequent conversation at which Mr Deripaska was not present, that the donation was "channelled" through one of Mr Deripaska's British companies. Mr Deripaska declined to make any donation. I mention this because it turns out that your obsession with Mr Mandelson is trivial in light of Mr Osborne's actions. I also think it ill behoves all political parties to try and make capital at the expense of another in such circumstances. Perhaps in future it would be better if all involved accepted the age-old adage that private parties are just that.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7681595.stm

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1. Nat Rothschild/Jennifer 'Nathalie' Shackleton....

Harking back to 2005....

From The Times October 17, 2005
Mistress Pain, Max Clifford, the tabloids: a Notting Hill set-up

SNIP:

THE first ominous sign that David Cameron’s campaign was about to be severely tested by a sex-and-drugs smear came in a telephone call from a former prostitute.
It was made about ten days ago by Jennifer Shackleton, 42 — a one-time professional dominatrix who advertised her services as “Mistress Pain” — to the office of George Osborne, 34, the Shadow Chancellor.

It was an unwelcome jolt from Mr Osborne’s past. Ms Shackleton had kept 12-year-old photographs of her embracing Mr Osborne, then aged 22, in a flat in Chelsea, with what could be a line of white powder on the table in front of her.

At the time she was involved in a relationship with a close friend of Mr Osborne. The Old Etonian friend had recently graduated from Bristol University where Samantha, the future wife of David Cameron, was studying art.
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In a classic red-top Sunday newspaper sting, Ms Shackleton, who Mr Osborne knew as Nathalie, was told by her media-keepers to telephone him.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article579397.ece

Good conincidence....

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2. The story is all over the papers this morning

I suppose a story of this sort involving Russian new money was kinda inevitable at some point.